Baltimore, Md., Sep 5, 2008 / 22:49 pm
A lawsuit was filed on Wednesday on behalf of three pro-life female protesters in their late teens and early twenties who were partially strip-searched in an August 1 incident after being arrested during a peaceful roadside demonstration in Maryland.
Charging Harford County, the town of Bel Air, and seven police officials with assault and battery, illegal imprisonment, and violations of the First, Fifth, Ninth, and Fourteenth Amendments of the U.S. Constitution, the lawsuit also alleges that police illegally arrested the protesters and made two “sexually intrusive” searches of the three young women’s bodies.
The demonstrators were also allegedly denied access to their lawyers and were not allowed to contact their parents.
Last August 1, eighteen demonstrators participated in the “Face the Truth” Pro-life Tour organized by the group Defend Life. The demonstrators, standing at public roads and intersections, showed pro-life signs and tried to distribute literature. They were told by officers to move from another location because of their lack of a permit, at which point they moved to the town of Bel Air.